Computer chips, with leads extends from their edges, are often presented by a supplier to a user in a storage tray having in it one or more molded pockets, in each of which a computer chip lies flat; in certain forms of such tray, a plurality of small depressions are also molded in the tray around each pocket. It is also now known to provide a socket for the chip, typically with its leads appropriately soldered to solder pads on a printed-circuit board for example, and to which socket the chip is to be transferred, so that the chip can thereafter readily be removed from the socket and replaced by another, for example, without requiring unsoldering or resoldering of the chip leads. In certain cases the socket has post-like protrusions extending upwardly at points about its periphery, for example at each of the four corners of a socket in the case of a generally square chip, and the chip is held in position on the socket by a locking cover applied from the top.
Manual lifting of the chip from the tray and placing of the chip in the socket has heretofore been performed by direct hand contact with the chip, or by lifting it with a simple vacuum hand tool. In the course of lifting the chips from the tray and placing them in their sockets, it has been customary to inspect them visually, for example for broken, damaged or improperly bent leads, in the course of which examination the chip is usually turned to examine it from all sides and from its bottom.
It is of course generally desirable to perform this lift-examine-place procedure as quickly as possible, using operators who are not necessarily highly skilled or trained, and in some cases not even highly reliable. Under these conditions especially, improper manual placement of the chips in their sockets can sometimes occur; this is a serious error which can result in fatal damage to the chip and/or inoperativeness of the system in which the chip is connected, and at least in costly delay.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a new system, method and tool for manually lifting a chip from its container for inspection, and subsequently placing it correctly on a socket, in a manner which is substantially fool-proof and very unlikely to result in any error in such lifting and placing.